Madden Football and learning math

More than a week ago I moderated a panel for the Joan Ganz Cooney Center's inaugural symposium. About 200 folks with money, power, influence and interesting ideas about technology and learning crammed into a room on the top floor of the McGraw-Hill building on 6th Avenue in NYC and exchanged promos for their products, programs, agendas and aggravations.

Scott Traylor of 360Kids has ably blogged about the event and highlighted the comments of Connie Yowell, director of education at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. At one point, Yowell asked the audience if they could see the learning that took place when children played Madden Football, a popular and long-running videogame produced by Electronic Arts. A sprinkling of attendees raised their hands for "yes." As Yowell said, "If you can’t understand where learning is happening through the Madden game, then we’re in the wrong paradigm. If you’re stuck in conversations about whether or not the Encyclopedia Britannica is better than Wikipedia, then we’re in the old paradigm."

I too was fascinated by her remarks. But I've got questions about Madden Football and whether the learning moments of the game are explicit enough to really help the kids of today become the math whizzes we'll need tomorrow. Seems to me a great topic for some real research, honestly. Is anyone out there following 10-year-olds who are growing up on videogame football to see where they end up? And do children learn more being in the game (via video simulation) than watching the game on TV and doing the mental calculations in their heads of plays tried and yards run? Anyone know teachers who are riffing off of these games in their classes? Email me if you've got some good leads. Thanks.